Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-10-30
stantly besicged by the keen agents OF

y
spend money literally, and each must
have, besides pleasing address, an
iron constitution. They must know
and be on good terms with the bar
tenders and wine.s stewards at the fash
ionable resorts OF the city, for little
carelessness i'll keeping wine q proper
temperature or iii serving il may ruin
its sale TO desirable customers. They
must know everybody who is worth
knowing, and spend their liberal al
lowances for incidentals with judg-
ment. One agent for then com?ara-
lively obscure firm had its wine put on
the bills of fare of nearly every hotel
in New York not long ago by reason of
bis extensive acquaintance and popu-
larity, but the firm objected to the ex-
tent of bis expense account and he left
them, taking with him much of his
custom.
A veteran agent of one of the wine
houses, who, like many of the profess
sion, had his training in Europe, tells
OF his experience one day at restau-
rant in a small German town. He en-
tered with five gentlemen OF promi-
nence who were ON a rural excursion
with him and won the astonishment
and admiration of the loiterers about
the place when he gave the order
Bring me six bottles of champagne
and six glasses" A peasant who was
considered a great man by his towns
men had entered and heard the order.
Determined not to let his glory fade
before the lustre of the strangers, he
turned to waiter and in loud and
pompous tone said bring me six
bottles of champagne and one glass !"
His order and his astonishing feat of
drinking nearly all the champagne
raised him nightly in the estimation
of his admirers.
AGE AND PEDIGREE.
The great champagne firm has its
department of still wines conducted by
experts in that branch of the trade,
who will tell you the age and pedigree
of wine by tasting it. They will tell
you that Americans are making COM
paratiyely slow progress in learning to
drink expensive still wines, and that
champagne is not, after all, the most
expensive of vinous drinks. Clarets
and Rhine wines at Sc bottle are sold
III considerable quantities, and Clio
vanni MOrosini, Mr.. Gould's right
band man, who is not a wine-drinker
himself, but keeps a well-stOcked cell
lar, has some of that peculiarly rich
brand of Italian wine known as Chianti,
which is almost worth its weight in
gold. The average New York wine
finn occasionally sends young man to
France to perfect him in the study OF
his business. One of these has just re-
TUNED. and he states that the champagne
and still wine product of the present
season is less il quantity but probably
better in quality than that of last year.
The French wine-grOwers are slowl y
learning the value of q certain applica-
ton about the vines as a protection
against mildew, and nearly every vine
yard where this was not used proved
failure this year. The young agent
made the astonishing discovery that the
people in the champagne district drink
very little champagne. The French
man and German usually prefers red
wine, and to meet the demand one firm
is low producing what it calls ruby
champagne.
There are some royal wine drinkers
in New York. One Of these is young
man who may be seen occasionally at
the fashionable cQjc and who is pointed
ont by the epicures as the person who
inherited Sam Wards stock of rare old
liquors. Pat Gilmore, the famous
musical director, never drinks anything
else but champagne, and he is consid-
cred one the best judges of it in New
York. There is a modest little restau
rant on one of the crosstown streets Of
the city whose proprietor is courted by
friends who long for n taste of his pri-
waite stock Of Burgundy and who envy
him because he has been able to drink
it all bis life without getting the govt.
The association Of the epicures known
as the TerTapin Club are constantly on
the lookout for choice Madeira, which
they use in cooking their feasts OF dia
mond backs. Recently a member
found five bottles of it at an old wine
shop in a cheap quarter of the city
The place had changed hands and the
new proprietor was asked what he
would take for the liquor. He was
getting SIS bottle for his Madeira,
and he gladly sold the epicure the five
bottles at that price. When he discov-
cred that it was some choice old wine,
worth at least 25 a bottle, he tried in
vain to annul the bargain.
A STRANGE BUSINESS CAREER.
Not few Of the men one meets in
Wall street have hadan eventiul career,
but very few have had an experience
so full Of vicissitudes and so interesting
in commercial sense as a man of
medium heighth, of rather portly build,
with somewhat heavy, oval features, OF
genial expression, which, however,
docs lot entirely conceal an underl ylng
decision Of character that suitable
occasion would make plainly manifest.
He is always dressed quietly, yet with
scrupulous regard to the best mode,
and be closely watches the market
fluctuations from the opening OF the
board till the gong of the Stock
Exchange announces the end OF the
SPECULATIVE battle. 1t is Oliver s. Daw-
son. He is not one of the powers of
the street far from it. But few OF the
giants of the speculative world have
had more varied career. Many Of
the lesser lights of Wall street, indeed,
are more interesting Ill some respects
than those who have achieved colossal
wealth often by the comparatively easy
methods known to financial jugglers
with the law.
Mr.. Dawson was born in Peoria, Ill,
where his father was q dry-goods mer-
chant, and where young Dawson ac-
CURED his first business experience. He
came to New York in 1861, when he was
nineteen years of age, with $4,000,
which he had acquired in the dry-goods
trade. He decidedto risk his moderate
fortune in stock speculation, and the
late Charles Osborn was his broker.
Charley" Osborn, as he was generally
called, was tine broker who engineered
the famous Northwest corner for Jay
Gould, in which he was SO signally
successful that he crippled not few
strong operators and Mr.. Osborn is
remembered as the only one of Jay
Gould's brokers who was sharp enough
to keep the large commissions received
from Gould instead of being drawn
into operations by which that Machia-